Nyanpasu!
A popular exercise, at least in American sports, is discussing who the best teams of all time are. Much like my last thread, which appeared to be very well-received, I will be giving my own personal ranking of these teams and then encouraging others to give their own thoughts. I'm honestly not sure how much traction this thread will have, since the subject matter might be a bit less interesting for the majority of Smogon's user-base than my prior thread. Nonetheless, as a Smogon veteran who likes writing, it's something I'm interested in exploring, and, at the very least, I hope to enlighten you all with a bit of Smogon history.
There have been 10 SPLs, and naturally, only the teams that won will be considered for this list, at least for me. You, as the reader, are obviously free to do as you wish. This ranking will obviously be based on the form that all of these players were in during and around that time, for obvious reasons. Their legacy, in some cases, will obviously be factored in a bit as well.
Unfortunately, due to one notorious German, SPL only has 9 winners. As such, the last slot can be left completely up to interpretation. Feel free to only rank teams from the years in which you were active on Smogon as well, or something of the sort. This thread has links to all past SPL spreadsheets / records, so you can look up how well people did in any given year.
Rewer has put together a list of the SPL-winning teams, which can be found in the following link: https://pastebin.com/9aipixEr
I will be drawing from this list to make my overall ranking. My first SPL was SPL 3, and I remember most pretty clearly ever since SPL 5. So, the two SPLs I did not participate in might be a bit tricky, but I will try my best. I suppose we will once again go from tenth to first.
10. The SPL X Tyrants
With apologies to legendary teams such as the SPL 8 Raiders, SPL 5 Cryonicles, and the SPL 3 Bigs, my journey shall start with the most recent SPL juggernaut. The Tyrants steamrolled through the regular season, and are the only team in SPL history to have every starter finish above .500. They ran into the buzz-saw known as lax + Lavos in the finals, who managed to carry a pretty dogshit team (as far as title teams go) to the trophy. The team was the most well-rounded of any on this list, and doesn't really possess a glaring weakness. They also possess a solid amount of star power between blunder and Poek, and possess enough solid other pieces to give them a nice shot in almost every tiebreak. This team would be way higher on this list if they managed to bring home the trophy, but unfortunately, they fell short, landing them at 10th.
9th. The SPL VI Classiest
This one's very easy for me to analyze, since I was the manager of this team. The SPL VI Classiest had a lot of flaws; for one, we somehow couldn't win a single variance madhouse game to save our lives LOL We were literally 2-8 in DPP until the finals. We finally decided to throw Asuya in there and had MoP give him a team, and somehow that worked. We had to overcome a lot of terrible players letting us down, as our UU starter Lowgock and RBY starter Raish were both absolutely AWFUL, and essentially made us waste around 20k. bad ass was our original DPP starter, which failed miserably LOL We spent like 16k on him too, jesus. Luckily, he did well after we flexed him to other tiers, and proved to be an essential component of our team. A midseason trade turned the team around for the better, as we managed to snag .5k from the Wolfpack, letting us pick up papai noel (and sogeking), and The_Chaser at mids (who was unfortunately pretty bad this year). After a lot of flexing, we ended up wasting Anti in RBY (something I would NEVER consider doing today), and it miraculously work, although this clown tried giving me a heart attack by playing fucking Smogon Tour DURING his finals series. I would be remiss to end this section without mentioning chimpact, who may or may not have been ghosted on his way to a 5-1 record. We even benched ben gay for him near the end of the season LOL good lord. The new gens of the team were pretty stacked, with revolutionary mind CTC and a young ben gay providing some nice innovative touches. The lower tier core of Hikari, bad ass, and FLCL, looks daunting even to this day. The old gens, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired, but they managed to smash the Ruiners in the finals. Our players came up clutch when it mattered, and we managed to take home the trophy. All that being said, as far as SPL champions go, this one was probably one of the worst. It's a tie between this team and the next team in this ranking for the 8th spot, and the sheer star power of the latter gives it an edge.
8th. The SPL X Ruiners
This team was an early favorite for a lot of people, but they were pretty poor on paper when stacked up with the Tyrants. There are many holes here, as evidenced by the fact that they sent out imsosorrylol with MEOWSTIC in the SPL finals LOOOL jesus. Ultimately, though, they get the 8th spot due to the absolutely ridiculous duo of lax + Lavos. These guys put on the greatest dual carry performace in the history of Smogon team tours; they won tiebreak after tiebreak, and carried this outmatched roster to a trophy. Whenever you needed them to win, they were there. The weaker slots occasionally stepped up as well, and made up for occasional poor performances by star players Pearl and Empo. Once again, though it's lax and Lavos's skills that lifted this team all the way to number 8 in the rankings.
7. The SPL VII Sharks
This team performed well in the playoffs, and knocked off the Classiest in the final. They were relatively hyped going into the season, and surpassed expectations. The team returned 3 players from the vaunted SPL V Cryonicles lineup in Hikari, Cased, and blarajan. All three won in the finals, with Case having one of the highlight games in SPL history, by crushing the soul[gazer] of the Classiest with mono-ice. Bad puns aside, this team combined a solid new gen foundation with a nice old gen core, which was buffered by M Dragon. Smurf and Golden Sun were never the same after this tournament, as ABR and blunder would sadly find out in the following year, but during the playoffs, they were beasts. This team is pretty well-rounded, but didn't have too many big performers. A lot of the players had average records in the regular season, but they stepped it up in the playoffs. At the end of the day, this was a pretty good team, but their lack of real star power knocks them down a little bit in these rankings.
6. The SPL III Ruiners
This team managed to knock out the vaunted Bigs in the finals, who were boasting a seemingly unstoppable OU core. This Ruiners lineup is a lot like the SPL IV Wolfpack's; they clearly have some holes, but the top-end of the team is pretty stacked. They had some pretty fire performances from legends Earthworm, pi face, and Folgorio. No one in the starting lineup was particularly bad this year besides xtrashine, who redeemed himself with a nice finals win his trademark Choice Band Ferrothorn. This team's pretty close with the next team in the rankings in my mind, but they lose the tiebreak off the manager difference. I will admit, I have no idea how much of a difference any of the Ruiners' managers made in their run this year, but I find it hard to believe they did more to patch up the team's weak spots than the following team's managers.
5. The SPL IV Wolfpack
This team probably had the most roller-coaster season of all time. Limitless orchestrated some of the craziest trades ever, trading well over 30k in order to acquire the retains he wanted. One of them, Poppy, quit early on, and the team looked like they were absolutely done. One of their players, Farmer, even allegedly threw some of his games. They were left for dead by midseason, and their head manager was forcibly removed after jasonpwn reported him for ghosting. They used mids to revitalize their roster, picking up future legend Marth, who would prove to be a key cog in their future success. The team managed to eke in to the playoffs over the Cryonicles off of BD, and beat the Sharks and Tigers to take the trophy. This team's seventh because it clearly has some flaws. taxi driver, HellPowna, Furai, and PK Gaming were all pretty sketchy slots, although they did pull out some key wins this year. The rest of the star-studded team was phenomenal, though, and the old gen core is perhaps the best ever. Tamahome, Jorgen, and Tiba were the best players in their respective tiers, and with the building prowess of Hugo, the new gens managed to remain competitive as well. FLCL and SilentVerse were titans of their metagames too. They get the tiebreak over the Ruiners to me by virtue of the aformentioned Hugo support, which was integral in patching up some of their weak spots.
4. The SPL V Sharks
Ah...my favorite SPL. The Sharks were beasts this year, and after figuring out our optimal lineup, we defeated two of the best on-paper teams of all time in the Wolfpack and Cryonicles. The team didn't really have a weak point, except for maybe mostwanted I suppose LOL This team managed to survive SoulWind, one of the team's most expensive players, having the worst season of his life; MoP decided to bench him for Kevin Garrett in the playoffs, who proved his mettle by securing two big twins over two of the best BW OUers of all time in Marth and Aqualouis. The old gens of the team were amazing, especially after we acquired Atticus at mids after that infamous Oglemi decision. The margins between this team and the two below it are honestly pretty razor thin; personally, I think this team was a hair better than those, though. This team also featured nearly unrivaled flexibility, with the ability to switch multiple tiers each week and give our opponents a different look if we deemed it necessary. The managers of the team were critical to our success, especially MoP, who ensured that no one choked on balls unless they wanted to die LOLO Everyone worked perfectly as a team, and the teambuilding for KG in the playoffs was absolutely remarkable. This team was definitely one of the least liked in SPL history; the teams facing us had such a ridiculous amount of helpers, while we hardly had any. At the end of the day, though, we took home the trophy in the greatest tour in Smogon history; can't ask for much more than that.
3. The SPL I Scooters
I have absolutely no idea if I ranked this team too highly or not LOL This seems pretty high to me, but on paper, they seemed really good. There were only 9 slots in this tournament, which obviously makes it far easier to build a complete team. Looking at this squad in 2020, it boasts a swarm of legends, with nearly all of their players being renowned in some capacity. I'm no expert on how good these individuals were in DPP, but from what I know, most of these people were pretty amazing. There isn't really a weak spot on this team as far as I can tell, with its worst player at the time probably being MrE, who actually went 7-4 in SPL I. I can't really say much about this team for obvious reasons, but they are definitely a complete team on-paper; however, at the end of the day, the team still only has 9 players, and that's enough to keep it from the top spot.
2. The SPL II Sharks
I'm almost positive almost every old player will put this team number one. I remember them being endlessly gassed when I joined the site, and for good reason. The old gens looks absolutely ridiculous; panamaxis is one of the best DPP players ever, Smurf was known for being a DPP UU beast, husk was a God at the time, Conflict's been one of the best GSCers for a decade now, and Carl was a pretty good RBYer back in the day. The OU core was also phenomenal, with all 3 players known for being pretty good at the time. DarkLucario is a legend in his own right, while 616 is probably the best Smogon VGC player ever. Not all of these guys had great seasons this year, but they were all pretty amazing players around the time from what I know. I obviously wasn't around then, so it's hard to know for sure, but this team looks absolutely amazing on paper. I know first-hand how much the Sharks managers elevate the team as well, and that assistance could only lift the team to higher levels. As well-rounded as this team is, this SPL only featured 10 slots, naturally making it easier to draft a complete team. The next team on our list pulled off the impossible with 12 slots.
1. The SPL IX Wolfpack
This team is, without question, the best of all time. If the Tyrants took home the trophy last year, maybe they would have a case, but they would still lose via the ABR tiebreak. This team did not have a single weak spot, and managed to pull it off without sacrificing an ounce of star power. ABR, SoulWind, and Asta are all amazing. The lower tiers were pretty good as well, and the old gens only made the team even stronger. Kanto had the season of his life, and was so impressive that the Wolfpack even put him in a tiebreak against BKC. Void had a great season in DPP, while Fear farmed a lot of wins as he tends to do in GSC. The worst player on the lineup is probably TIN, but he's a capable RBY player, so it's hard to ask for much more than that. In addition to all of this, they had Tony as a manager, a man whose known for elevating the talent on his team. If that wasn't enough, they also had fucking ABR, who is probably the best team support anyone could ever ask for. Honestly, the craziest thing about this team is that they were somehow one game away from losing SPL LOOOL That shouldn't even be possible with a squad this loaded. They managed to pull out the win, though, and that secures their spot as the greatest team of all time.
So, that's my ranking. Feel free to post your own thoughts; I'm pretty interested to see what people have to say, especially with all the crust hating that goes on nowadays, kind of spear-headed by me LOL If you were around for some of the older SPLs, it would be cool to see what you have to say about those, since I wasn't really that in-tune with tournament culture until SPL 5. If you are a newer player, maybe you think there are some teams that deserve a mention on this list. Or, if you don't value trophies, maybe you think half the teams on this list are garbage and want to add your own. Anything is fine. Anyway, hope you enjoyed; I like talking about Smogon history, so this was a fun thing to write.
A popular exercise, at least in American sports, is discussing who the best teams of all time are. Much like my last thread, which appeared to be very well-received, I will be giving my own personal ranking of these teams and then encouraging others to give their own thoughts. I'm honestly not sure how much traction this thread will have, since the subject matter might be a bit less interesting for the majority of Smogon's user-base than my prior thread. Nonetheless, as a Smogon veteran who likes writing, it's something I'm interested in exploring, and, at the very least, I hope to enlighten you all with a bit of Smogon history.
There have been 10 SPLs, and naturally, only the teams that won will be considered for this list, at least for me. You, as the reader, are obviously free to do as you wish. This ranking will obviously be based on the form that all of these players were in during and around that time, for obvious reasons. Their legacy, in some cases, will obviously be factored in a bit as well.
Unfortunately, due to one notorious German, SPL only has 9 winners. As such, the last slot can be left completely up to interpretation. Feel free to only rank teams from the years in which you were active on Smogon as well, or something of the sort. This thread has links to all past SPL spreadsheets / records, so you can look up how well people did in any given year.
Rewer has put together a list of the SPL-winning teams, which can be found in the following link: https://pastebin.com/9aipixEr
I will be drawing from this list to make my overall ranking. My first SPL was SPL 3, and I remember most pretty clearly ever since SPL 5. So, the two SPLs I did not participate in might be a bit tricky, but I will try my best. I suppose we will once again go from tenth to first.
10. The SPL X Tyrants
SM OU: Mana
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA
SM UU: Christo
SM RU: aim
SM NU: ict
SM DOU: emforbes
ORAS OU: Poek
BW OU: We Three Kings
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas
GSC OU: sulcata
RBY OU: Heroic Troller
Managers: reyscarface / Hogg
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA
SM UU: Christo
SM RU: aim
SM NU: ict
SM DOU: emforbes
ORAS OU: Poek
BW OU: We Three Kings
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas
GSC OU: sulcata
RBY OU: Heroic Troller
Managers: reyscarface / Hogg
With apologies to legendary teams such as the SPL 8 Raiders, SPL 5 Cryonicles, and the SPL 3 Bigs, my journey shall start with the most recent SPL juggernaut. The Tyrants steamrolled through the regular season, and are the only team in SPL history to have every starter finish above .500. They ran into the buzz-saw known as lax + Lavos in the finals, who managed to carry a pretty dogshit team (as far as title teams go) to the trophy. The team was the most well-rounded of any on this list, and doesn't really possess a glaring weakness. They also possess a solid amount of star power between blunder and Poek, and possess enough solid other pieces to give them a nice shot in almost every tiebreak. This team would be way higher on this list if they managed to bring home the trophy, but unfortunately, they fell short, landing them at 10th.
9th. The SPL VI Classiest
ORAS OU: CTC
ORAS OU: ben gay
ORAS Ubers: Jibaku
ORAS UU: Hikari
ORAS RU: Bad Ass
ORAS NU: FLCL
ORAS Doubles: Braverius
BW OU: papai noel
DPP OU: Asuya
ADV OU: Triangles
GSC OU: Mr.E
RBY OU: KratosMana
Managers: kokoloko / -Tsunami-
ORAS OU: ben gay
ORAS Ubers: Jibaku
ORAS UU: Hikari
ORAS RU: Bad Ass
ORAS NU: FLCL
ORAS Doubles: Braverius
BW OU: papai noel
DPP OU: Asuya
ADV OU: Triangles
GSC OU: Mr.E
RBY OU: KratosMana
Managers: kokoloko / -Tsunami-
This one's very easy for me to analyze, since I was the manager of this team. The SPL VI Classiest had a lot of flaws; for one, we somehow couldn't win a single variance madhouse game to save our lives LOL We were literally 2-8 in DPP until the finals. We finally decided to throw Asuya in there and had MoP give him a team, and somehow that worked. We had to overcome a lot of terrible players letting us down, as our UU starter Lowgock and RBY starter Raish were both absolutely AWFUL, and essentially made us waste around 20k. bad ass was our original DPP starter, which failed miserably LOL We spent like 16k on him too, jesus. Luckily, he did well after we flexed him to other tiers, and proved to be an essential component of our team. A midseason trade turned the team around for the better, as we managed to snag .5k from the Wolfpack, letting us pick up papai noel (and sogeking), and The_Chaser at mids (who was unfortunately pretty bad this year). After a lot of flexing, we ended up wasting Anti in RBY (something I would NEVER consider doing today), and it miraculously work, although this clown tried giving me a heart attack by playing fucking Smogon Tour DURING his finals series. I would be remiss to end this section without mentioning chimpact, who may or may not have been ghosted on his way to a 5-1 record. We even benched ben gay for him near the end of the season LOL good lord. The new gens of the team were pretty stacked, with revolutionary mind CTC and a young ben gay providing some nice innovative touches. The lower tier core of Hikari, bad ass, and FLCL, looks daunting even to this day. The old gens, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired, but they managed to smash the Ruiners in the finals. Our players came up clutch when it mattered, and we managed to take home the trophy. All that being said, as far as SPL champions go, this one was probably one of the worst. It's a tie between this team and the next team in this ranking for the 8th spot, and the sheer star power of the latter gives it an edge.
8th. The SPL X Ruiners
SM OU: Hiye
SM OU: Empo
SM UU: Pearl
SM RU: passion
SM NU: lax
SM DOU: Croven
ORAS OU: Luigi / imsosorrylol
BW OU: Rewer
DPP OU: Jimmy Turtwig
ADV OU: Hyogafodex
GSC OU: Lavos
RBY OU: FriendOfMrGolem120
Managers: ChillShadow / snaga
SM OU: Empo
SM UU: Pearl
SM RU: passion
SM NU: lax
SM DOU: Croven
ORAS OU: Luigi / imsosorrylol
BW OU: Rewer
DPP OU: Jimmy Turtwig
ADV OU: Hyogafodex
GSC OU: Lavos
RBY OU: FriendOfMrGolem120
Managers: ChillShadow / snaga
This team was an early favorite for a lot of people, but they were pretty poor on paper when stacked up with the Tyrants. There are many holes here, as evidenced by the fact that they sent out imsosorrylol with MEOWSTIC in the SPL finals LOOOL jesus. Ultimately, though, they get the 8th spot due to the absolutely ridiculous duo of lax + Lavos. These guys put on the greatest dual carry performace in the history of Smogon team tours; they won tiebreak after tiebreak, and carried this outmatched roster to a trophy. Whenever you needed them to win, they were there. The weaker slots occasionally stepped up as well, and made up for occasional poor performances by star players Pearl and Empo. Once again, though it's lax and Lavos's skills that lifted this team all the way to number 8 in the rankings.
7. The SPL VII Sharks
ORAS OU: reiku
ORAS OU: Steve Angello
ORAS UU: Hikari
ORAS RU: Meru
ORAS NU: Cased
ORAS LC: blarajan
ORAS Doubles: TheFourthChaser
BW OU: GOD MARTH
DPP OU: Smurf.
ADV OU: Golden Sun
GSC OU: Conflict
RBY OU: The_Chaser
Managers: makiri / M Dragon
ORAS OU: Steve Angello
ORAS UU: Hikari
ORAS RU: Meru
ORAS NU: Cased
ORAS LC: blarajan
ORAS Doubles: TheFourthChaser
BW OU: GOD MARTH
DPP OU: Smurf.
ADV OU: Golden Sun
GSC OU: Conflict
RBY OU: The_Chaser
Managers: makiri / M Dragon
This team performed well in the playoffs, and knocked off the Classiest in the final. They were relatively hyped going into the season, and surpassed expectations. The team returned 3 players from the vaunted SPL V Cryonicles lineup in Hikari, Cased, and blarajan. All three won in the finals, with Case having one of the highlight games in SPL history, by crushing the soul[gazer] of the Classiest with mono-ice. Bad puns aside, this team combined a solid new gen foundation with a nice old gen core, which was buffered by M Dragon. Smurf and Golden Sun were never the same after this tournament, as ABR and blunder would sadly find out in the following year, but during the playoffs, they were beasts. This team is pretty well-rounded, but didn't have too many big performers. A lot of the players had average records in the regular season, but they stepped it up in the playoffs. At the end of the day, this was a pretty good team, but their lack of real star power knocks them down a little bit in these rankings.
6. The SPL III Ruiners
BW OU 1: xtrashine
BW OU 2: McMeghan
BW OU 3: Folgorio
BW UBER: pi face
BW UU: FlareBlitz
BW RU: Bad Romance
VGC 2012: Sapphire Birch
DPP OU: BlightBringer
ADV OU: Earthworm
GSC OU: kael
RBY OU: Crystal_
Managers: The_Chaser / Scofield / Gouki
BW OU 2: McMeghan
BW OU 3: Folgorio
BW UBER: pi face
BW UU: FlareBlitz
BW RU: Bad Romance
VGC 2012: Sapphire Birch
DPP OU: BlightBringer
ADV OU: Earthworm
GSC OU: kael
RBY OU: Crystal_
Managers: The_Chaser / Scofield / Gouki
This team managed to knock out the vaunted Bigs in the finals, who were boasting a seemingly unstoppable OU core. This Ruiners lineup is a lot like the SPL IV Wolfpack's; they clearly have some holes, but the top-end of the team is pretty stacked. They had some pretty fire performances from legends Earthworm, pi face, and Folgorio. No one in the starting lineup was particularly bad this year besides xtrashine, who redeemed himself with a nice finals win his trademark Choice Band Ferrothorn. This team's pretty close with the next team in the rankings in my mind, but they lose the tiebreak off the manager difference. I will admit, I have no idea how much of a difference any of the Ruiners' managers made in their run this year, but I find it hard to believe they did more to patch up the team's weak spots than the following team's managers.
5. The SPL IV Wolfpack
BW OU 1: AkhiMarth
BW OU 2: taxi driver
BW OU 3: HellPowna
BW Ubers: Furai
BW UU: PK Gaming
BW RU: SilentVerse
BW NU: FLCL
VGC 2013: kingofkongs
DPP OU: DracoMalfoy
ADV OU: DarkLoic
GSC OU: Jorgen
RBY OU: Tiba
Managers: Limitless / Kevin_Garrett / gr8astard / DittoCrow
BW OU 2: taxi driver
BW OU 3: HellPowna
BW Ubers: Furai
BW UU: PK Gaming
BW RU: SilentVerse
BW NU: FLCL
VGC 2013: kingofkongs
DPP OU: DracoMalfoy
ADV OU: DarkLoic
GSC OU: Jorgen
RBY OU: Tiba
Managers: Limitless / Kevin_Garrett / gr8astard / DittoCrow
This team probably had the most roller-coaster season of all time. Limitless orchestrated some of the craziest trades ever, trading well over 30k in order to acquire the retains he wanted. One of them, Poppy, quit early on, and the team looked like they were absolutely done. One of their players, Farmer, even allegedly threw some of his games. They were left for dead by midseason, and their head manager was forcibly removed after jasonpwn reported him for ghosting. They used mids to revitalize their roster, picking up future legend Marth, who would prove to be a key cog in their future success. The team managed to eke in to the playoffs over the Cryonicles off of BD, and beat the Sharks and Tigers to take the trophy. This team's seventh because it clearly has some flaws. taxi driver, HellPowna, Furai, and PK Gaming were all pretty sketchy slots, although they did pull out some key wins this year. The rest of the star-studded team was phenomenal, though, and the old gen core is perhaps the best ever. Tamahome, Jorgen, and Tiba were the best players in their respective tiers, and with the building prowess of Hugo, the new gens managed to remain competitive as well. FLCL and SilentVerse were titans of their metagames too. They get the tiebreak over the Ruiners to me by virtue of the aformentioned Hugo support, which was integral in patching up some of their weak spots.
4. The SPL V Sharks
XY OU 1: -Tsunami-
XY OU 2: LUST
XY Ubers: Edgar
XY LC: Al_Alchemist
XY Doubles: Arcticblast
BW OU: Kevin Garrett
BW UU: Stellar
BW RU: Heist
BW NU: Malekith
DPP OU: Atticus
ADV OU: make
GSC OU: Conflict
Managers: MoP / makiri / Phillip7086 / panamaxis
XY OU 2: LUST
XY Ubers: Edgar
XY LC: Al_Alchemist
XY Doubles: Arcticblast
BW OU: Kevin Garrett
BW UU: Stellar
BW RU: Heist
BW NU: Malekith
DPP OU: Atticus
ADV OU: make
GSC OU: Conflict
Managers: MoP / makiri / Phillip7086 / panamaxis
Ah...my favorite SPL. The Sharks were beasts this year, and after figuring out our optimal lineup, we defeated two of the best on-paper teams of all time in the Wolfpack and Cryonicles. The team didn't really have a weak point, except for maybe mostwanted I suppose LOL This team managed to survive SoulWind, one of the team's most expensive players, having the worst season of his life; MoP decided to bench him for Kevin Garrett in the playoffs, who proved his mettle by securing two big twins over two of the best BW OUers of all time in Marth and Aqualouis. The old gens of the team were amazing, especially after we acquired Atticus at mids after that infamous Oglemi decision. The margins between this team and the two below it are honestly pretty razor thin; personally, I think this team was a hair better than those, though. This team also featured nearly unrivaled flexibility, with the ability to switch multiple tiers each week and give our opponents a different look if we deemed it necessary. The managers of the team were critical to our success, especially MoP, who ensured that no one choked on balls unless they wanted to die LOLO Everyone worked perfectly as a team, and the teambuilding for KG in the playoffs was absolutely remarkable. This team was definitely one of the least liked in SPL history; the teams facing us had such a ridiculous amount of helpers, while we hardly had any. At the end of the day, though, we took home the trophy in the greatest tour in Smogon history; can't ask for much more than that.
3. The SPL I Scooters
DPP OU 1: Atticus
DPP OU 2: Gouki
DPP OU 3: apologies
DPP UBER: Jibaku
DPP UU: Folgorio
ADV OU: g80
GSC OU: Mr.E
RBY OU: husk
Managers: Synre / Carl / alex
DPP OU 2: Gouki
DPP OU 3: apologies
DPP UBER: Jibaku
DPP UU: Folgorio
ADV OU: g80
GSC OU: Mr.E
RBY OU: husk
Managers: Synre / Carl / alex
I have absolutely no idea if I ranked this team too highly or not LOL This seems pretty high to me, but on paper, they seemed really good. There were only 9 slots in this tournament, which obviously makes it far easier to build a complete team. Looking at this squad in 2020, it boasts a swarm of legends, with nearly all of their players being renowned in some capacity. I'm no expert on how good these individuals were in DPP, but from what I know, most of these people were pretty amazing. There isn't really a weak spot on this team as far as I can tell, with its worst player at the time probably being MrE, who actually went 7-4 in SPL I. I can't really say much about this team for obvious reasons, but they are definitely a complete team on-paper; however, at the end of the day, the team still only has 9 players, and that's enough to keep it from the top spot.
2. The SPL II Sharks
BW OU 1: Philip7086
BW OU 2: Eternal
BW OU 3: Lady Bug
BW UBER: DarkLucario
VGC 2011: Sixonesix
DPP OU: panamaxis
DPP UU: Smurf
ADV OU: husk
GSC OU: Conflict
RBY OU: Carl
Managers: makiri / MoP
BW OU 2: Eternal
BW OU 3: Lady Bug
BW UBER: DarkLucario
VGC 2011: Sixonesix
DPP OU: panamaxis
DPP UU: Smurf
ADV OU: husk
GSC OU: Conflict
RBY OU: Carl
Managers: makiri / MoP
I'm almost positive almost every old player will put this team number one. I remember them being endlessly gassed when I joined the site, and for good reason. The old gens looks absolutely ridiculous; panamaxis is one of the best DPP players ever, Smurf was known for being a DPP UU beast, husk was a God at the time, Conflict's been one of the best GSCers for a decade now, and Carl was a pretty good RBYer back in the day. The OU core was also phenomenal, with all 3 players known for being pretty good at the time. DarkLucario is a legend in his own right, while 616 is probably the best Smogon VGC player ever. Not all of these guys had great seasons this year, but they were all pretty amazing players around the time from what I know. I obviously wasn't around then, so it's hard to know for sure, but this team looks absolutely amazing on paper. I know first-hand how much the Sharks managers elevate the team as well, and that assistance could only lift the team to higher levels. As well-rounded as this team is, this SPL only featured 10 slots, naturally making it easier to draft a complete team. The next team on our list pulled off the impossible with 12 slots.
1. The SPL IX Wolfpack
SM OU: ABR
SM OU: Trosko
SM UU: PokeTCG gamer1288
SM RU: soulgazer
SM NU: Rodriblutar
SM DOU: marilli
ORAS OU: Updated Kanto
BW OU: SoulWind
DPP OU: Void
ADV OU: Astamatitos
GSC OU: Fear
RBY OU: The Idiot Ninja
Managers: Tony / Anti / rozes
SM OU: Trosko
SM UU: PokeTCG gamer1288
SM RU: soulgazer
SM NU: Rodriblutar
SM DOU: marilli
ORAS OU: Updated Kanto
BW OU: SoulWind
DPP OU: Void
ADV OU: Astamatitos
GSC OU: Fear
RBY OU: The Idiot Ninja
Managers: Tony / Anti / rozes
This team is, without question, the best of all time. If the Tyrants took home the trophy last year, maybe they would have a case, but they would still lose via the ABR tiebreak. This team did not have a single weak spot, and managed to pull it off without sacrificing an ounce of star power. ABR, SoulWind, and Asta are all amazing. The lower tiers were pretty good as well, and the old gens only made the team even stronger. Kanto had the season of his life, and was so impressive that the Wolfpack even put him in a tiebreak against BKC. Void had a great season in DPP, while Fear farmed a lot of wins as he tends to do in GSC. The worst player on the lineup is probably TIN, but he's a capable RBY player, so it's hard to ask for much more than that. In addition to all of this, they had Tony as a manager, a man whose known for elevating the talent on his team. If that wasn't enough, they also had fucking ABR, who is probably the best team support anyone could ever ask for. Honestly, the craziest thing about this team is that they were somehow one game away from losing SPL LOOOL That shouldn't even be possible with a squad this loaded. They managed to pull out the win, though, and that secures their spot as the greatest team of all time.
So, that's my ranking. Feel free to post your own thoughts; I'm pretty interested to see what people have to say, especially with all the crust hating that goes on nowadays, kind of spear-headed by me LOL If you were around for some of the older SPLs, it would be cool to see what you have to say about those, since I wasn't really that in-tune with tournament culture until SPL 5. If you are a newer player, maybe you think there are some teams that deserve a mention on this list. Or, if you don't value trophies, maybe you think half the teams on this list are garbage and want to add your own. Anything is fine. Anyway, hope you enjoyed; I like talking about Smogon history, so this was a fun thing to write.
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